ADEN, (AFP) — Two Yemeni soldiers and two suspected Al-Qaeda militants were killed in clashes overnight near the restive southern city of Zinjibar, a military source said on Saturday.

Three soldiers and four members of the Partisans of Sharia, an Al-Qaeda-linked insurgent group that took over most of Zinjibar earlier this year, were wounded in the fighting, the source said.

Zinjibar is the capital of the southern Abyan province, a stronghold of Al-Qaeda, and has been the scene of frequent fighting between army troops and Islamist militants since May.

Meanwhile hundreds of Yemenis were marching Saturday on Zinjibar to protest months of violence that has seen most of its residents abandon the city and seek shelter elsewhere.

The protesters, mostly Zinjibar residents, carried banners calling for “the departure of Al-Qaeda fighters” from their city and an end to the “destructive war”, said one of the organisers of the march, Mohammed Qays.